Papel Picado

July 20, 2016

My friend, Sabrina, asked me to make a sign for her wedding. Something to put out in front of the house where the wedding would be hosted, to help people find the place. The wedding had a Mexican theme with bright paper flowers and paper cut flags (papel picado).

I spent a while looking at papel picado examples and came up with a design. I printed a black & white version of the design and gathered some plywood and hinges. I was able to get the plywood store to cut a sheet down into the right sizes to save myself a step (also I'm still learning how to cut straight with a skilsaw). I tried a few methods for transferring my design onto the wood and found the best method on the third try. I covered the plywood with masking tape and carved over the paper design through the tape. Then I could remove the tape from the areas I wanted to paint. This made painting super easy.

When it was dry, I pulled up the remaining tape and it left crisp lines. Let me tell you, pulling up the tape after painting was soooo satisfying. Assembling the sign was pretty simple after that.